Enable Apache "public_html" for users in Ubuntu 10.04

Enable mod_userdir, which is installed by default with Apache2.  
sudo a2enmod userdir   

Create public_html directory with the user's permissions
mkdir public_html   

I don't know if that is a bug or a feature. Edit file /etc/apache2/mods-available/php5.conf and comment out lines

...IfModule mod_userdir.c...

        ...Directory /home/*/public_html..

        ...php_admin_value engine Off
        .../Directory

    .../IfModule...

Restart Apache Finally, you should restart Apache.  
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart  

You can test with http://localhost/~username  or http://ip-address-of-system/~username